Ann Louise Gittleman is an American author and proponent of
alternative medicine, especially
fad diets
A fad diet is a diet that becomes popular for a short time, similar to fads in fashion, without being a standard dietary recommendation, and often making unreasonable claims for fast weight loss or health improvements. There is no single defi ...
.
She regards herself as a
nutritionist A nutritionist is a person who advises others on matters of food and nutrition and their impacts on health. Some people specialize in particular areas, such as sports nutrition, public health, or animal nutrition, among other disciplines. In many ...
. Gittleman has written more than two dozen books and is known for ''The Fat Flush Plan'', a
"detox" diet and exercise program that she developed into a series of books. Gittleman's ideas on health and nutrition are regarded as
pseudoscience
Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable clai ...
.
Education and career
In 2002, she was given a Ph.D. in holistic nutrition from
Clayton College of Natural Health
The Clayton College of Natural Health was a non-accredited American distance-learning college based in Birmingham, Alabama, offering classes in various forms of alternative medicine. The school was founded in 1980 by Lloyd Clayton Jr. as the Am ...
, an unaccredited and now defunct
diploma mill
A diploma mill (also known as a degree mill) is a company or organization that claims to be a higher education institution but provides illegitimate academic degrees and diplomas for a fee. The degrees can be fabricated (made-up), falsified (fake ...
.
In 1994, she was featured in an advertising campaign for Rejuvex,
a
dietary supplement for
menopause
Menopause, also known as the climacteric, is the time in women's lives when menstrual periods stop permanently, and they are no longer able to bear children. Menopause usually occurs between the age of 47 and 54. Medical professionals often ...
symptoms that is not supported by scientific or clinical evidence.
Gittleman has written many books on
alternative medical ideas for health and nutrition. Her books have appeared on popular television programs, including ''
20/20
Visual acuity (VA) commonly refers to the clarity of vision, but technically rates an examinee's ability to recognize small details with precision. Visual acuity is dependent on optical and neural factors, i.e. (1) the sharpness of the retinal ...
'', ''
Dr. Phil'', ''
Good Morning America'', and ''
The Early Show
''The Early Show'' is an American morning television show that aired on CBS from November 1, 1999 to January 7, 2012, and the ninth attempt at a morning news-talk program by the network since 1954. The program aired Monday through Friday from ...
''. She has been criticized for promoting incorrect notions about medicine, diet, and electromagnetic radiation.
Books
In 2001, she released her book ''The Fat Flush Plan'', which became a ''New York Times'' best seller, reaching #14 on the "Hardcover Advice" list.
In May 2004, ''The Fat Flush Plan'' was described along with other low carbohydrate diets in a ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' magazine story, ''The Skinny on Low Carbs''.
Gittleman's books have been criticized as inconsistent with the best understanding of health and nutrition,
and for presenting scientific research in a simplistic and one-sided manner.
According to
Healthline
Healthline Media, Inc. is an American website and provider of health information headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1999, relaunched in 2006, and established as a standalone entity in January 2016.
Accuracy
There ar ...
, Gittleman's ''Fat Flush Plan'' is a fad diet that uses "convoluted science and gimmicky logic to sell its products", and that the bulk of the plan should be skipped because "a two-week juice fast is never healthy."
Gittleman's suggestion to
detoxify as part of the ''Fat Flush Plan'' has made her diet the subject of criticism from some nutritionists and medical doctors.
Dr. Judith Stern, vice president of the
American Obesity Society, has called the ''Fat Flush Plan'' "pseudoscience" that promises everything, but is "a fantasy".
Gittleman's 2010 book ''Zapped'' has been met with skepticism by reviewers who say the book incorporates non-scientific concepts to assert the danger of
electromagnetic fields, and presents evidence in a biased manner.
Gittleman has written more than two dozen books advocating an
alternative medicine approach to health and nutrition.
Select titles:
* ( ''New York Times'' bestseller
)
*
*
*
*
*
* Top 10 Notable New Diet Books of 2010 by ''Time'' magazine
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gittleman, Ann Louise
1949 births
Living people
American women nutritionists
American nutritionists
Jewish American writers
American health and wellness writers
American women non-fiction writers
Alternative detoxification promoters
Pseudoscientific diet advocates
Teachers College, Columbia University alumni
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American women